Happenings at and ideas for Community Unitarian Universalist Congregation at White Plains, from the minister and staffFor the website for Community Unitarian Universalist, CLICK HERE. For "The Liberal Pulpit" CLICK HERE.

CUUC

2018-01-18

From the Minister, Thu Jan 18

Twenty-seven intrepid CUUCers gathered after the Sunday service on Jan 14 to discuss the Statement of Conscience adopted at General Assembly, and whether our congregation should also adopt it.

While the group has no official status, they did suggest a support some amendments:

Amendment #3. At line 227, after "housing" replace the comma with a semi-colon and insert the word "opposing". (0 opposed)

Amendment #4. Insert a new bullet point between lines 214 and 215: "Ensure equitable compensation and respectful treatment of all consultants, contractors, and sub-contractors working for the congregation." (0 opposed)

Also proposed, but not supported: Delete the section consisting of lines 164-202. (1 in favor, 13 opposed).

See the Statement of Conscience, "Escalating Economic Inequity" HERE. (This version does not reflect the supported amendments.)

Further amendments still to be considered are posted as comments to the post HERE. You can also add a comment to this post to propose an amendment.

I love democracy! When UUs engage together in deliberative process, it's about the most fun I ever have in public. I get passionate about it -- and sometimes maybe I seem a little cranky, but that's part of the rough and tumble of hashing out issues with minds that are different from mine and therefore expand mine. Make no mistake: I'm having a great time! There is a kind of community that comes into existence when we meet in the space of democratic process -- ready to share our thinking, ready to be persuaded to change that thinking, and ready to yield lovingly to the majority even when we remain unpersuaded. Democracy IS community, and in that wondrous space all our differences are accepted even as our common cause is constructed. It's truly beautiful.

Be a part of the next deliberative meeting coming up soon to consider further proposed amendments. Stay tuned!

Sewing/Needlework. In the three years of disruptive predicaments, I made eight pieced jackets. Always as I stitched, I had an intuitive feeling that, though chaos exists, it need not define my life. Outside the sewing room, the twitching and fretting subsided. Any creative activity, practiced with intentionality and without concern for outcome or gain, evokes the spirit. Whether it be poetry, handcrafts, or music-making, there is a creative activity that speaks to every soul and has the power to heal and strengthen. READ MORE

Make Sense. If practice does you good, then wouldn't practice make you more good -- i.e., better -- than people who don't practice? Unless maybe those others just naturally have the virtues that we who practice are trying to acquire? That must be it. We're the remedial class, trying to catch up with those others who are perfectly beautiful and wonderful without having to practice. Even so, those others occasionally need some inspiration. How can we help provide them with some? Just try to be a sensible turkey.

Case

One evening Raven took her perch on the Assembly Oak and said, "I worked with Jackrabbit Roshi for a long time, and there were certain things in his teaching that troubled me. I never asked about them, and finally I just came to the end and left. I think now that if I had spoken up sooner, it might have helped us both. So now I would ask you, is there anything in our program that troubles you?"
There was a long silence. Finally Turkey, a visitor that evening, spoke up. "I've been wondering," she said, "why it is that you don't have more songbirds in your community."
Raven said, "Maybe they're content just to inspire us from the trees."
Turkey asked, "How can they be inspired?"
Raven said, "Make sense."

Verse

Theirs to sing, flash color, beyond all sense.
Ours to plod, grind,
Justify our margins, rationalize our punctuation.
Yes, these too are pretty gifts, and we give them
As the finch gives hers.
Even so.
Is not this specialization an affront
To both song and reason?